The present invention relates to solid-state displays and more specifically to edge-emitter reflective field emission pixel elements of solid-state displays.
Solid state and non-Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display technologies are well-known in the art. Light Emitting Diode (LED) displays, for example, include semiconductor diode elements that may be arranged in configurations to display alphanumeric characters. Alphanumeric characters are then displayed by applying a potential or voltage to specific elements within the configuration. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) are composed of a liquid crystal material sandwiched between two sheets of a polarizing material. When a voltage is applied to the sandwiched materials, the liquid crystal material aligns in a manner to pass or block light. Plasma displays conventionally use a neon/xenon gas mixture housed between sealed glass plates that have parallel electrodes deposited on the surface.
Passive matrix displays and active matrix displays are flat panel displays that are used extensively in laptop and notebook computers. In a passive matrix display, there is a matrix or grid of solid-state elements in which each element or pixel is selected by applying a potential to a corresponding row and column line that forms the matrix or grid. In an active matrix display, each pixel is further controlled by at least one transistor and a capacitor that is also selected by applying a potential to a corresponding row and column line. Active matrix displays provide better resolution than passive matrix displays, but they are considerably more expensive to produce.
While each of these display technologies has advantages, such as low power and lightweight, they also have characteristics that make them unsuitable for many other types of applications. Passive matrix displays have limited resolution, while active matrix displays are expensive to manufacture.
Hence, there is a need for a low-cost, lightweight, high-resolution display that can be used in a variety of display applications.
A Field Emission Display (FED) device using edge-emitter reflective field emission pixel elements is disclosed. In the FED device disclosed, each pixel element comprises at least one cathode or edge emitter that is operable to emit electrons and at least one reflector that is operable to attract and reflect the emitted electrons. A transparent layer is oppositely positioned to the cathode or emitter and is operable to attract the reflected electrons. A phosphor layer is interposed between the transparent layer and the emitter/reflector elements and produces a photonic response as reflected electrons are attracted to the transparent layer and bombard the phosphor layer. In another aspect of the invention, a plurality of phosphor layers are applied to the transparent layer, which produce different levels of color as reflected electrons are attracted to the transparent layer and bombard corresponding phosphor layers.